In My Day
by eleventeenfifty
Summary: Gallifrey is a wonderful place to grow up, but the Academy? Not so much. The Academy in this story is based off of hunterofartemis080's story Songs of TARDISes, which you should read because it's wonderful.
1. Chapter 1

Her hands were clammy and it felt almost as though something in one of her hearts had fluttered as she stared into the bluish purple swirls. It reminded her of when her mother would tell her about the day she and her father had met, how she said it was like there were flutterwings bouncing about in her stomach and she was so nervous she could barely speak. The corner of her mouth turned upward at the memory as she continued to look into the most important thing she'd ever witness.

Sounds of laughter came through her and she swore she could smell the cookies her mother had baked before she left. She felt strangely comfortable, though she knew she shouldn't. The schism was greeting her like a companion, reminiscing with her over the memories of her earlier childhood.

She was an only child, so there would be no comparison on how long she looked into the schism. Both of her parents had only one sibling, too, though they were a tight knit group. She tried thinking of these things, hoping to distract herself from the one thing that could either drive her insane or inspire her to no end.

It didn't work. She felt her eyes begin to burn and thought perhaps she'd looked long enough into the abyss, but she didn't glance away. It was only when the pain had spread to the back of her head and threatened her ability to stand that she closed her eyes and turned back. She was welcomed to the Academy and lead her back to where all the other novices had regrouped.

There were only two people after her, meaning she was the third youngest. She looked it, too. She was average height for her age (she wasn't sure why they called it average if most people were taller than her anyways), but very thin, very fragile looking. Her dark brown hair, much like her mother's, came down to the middle of her back in waves. She may have gotten her hair from her mother, but her eyes were a bright blue, something she inherited from her father.

In the beginning there were sixteen children in her year, though it looked as though they had lost one. They were all split into two groups by gender and escorted by professors to meet their new roommates. The halls seemed endless and loud, what with everybody talking and trying to guess who'd they be staying with.

The professor, known as the Bala showed her to a room on the second floor and a young girl with dark hair and then left, smiling and telling them she hoped they would become friends. The girl smiled at her before introducing herself. "I'm Priam. I guess we're roommates," Priam grinned.

"I'm Kailee," she smiled an awkward, flatline smile.

Her mother loved her second name. She thought it was pretty, even though it was an Earthian name. Kailee had always adored her name as well, but she was more interested in where it came from. It amazed her that she had a name from another planet. She would ask her mother all about Earth constantly, until she was satisfied knowing more than just that it had trees and grass and only one sun (which she thought was a whole new level of weird) and that the people that lived there were called humans.

She lived in one of the larger cities of Gallifrey. She wasn't surrounded with the children or fields of beautiful red grass other students were accustomed to. She could barely see the two suns set past the buildings each day, and she had never left home except to visit her father and the rest of her family and go to the store. Her mother was happy there, though, and she could pick flowers off the sidewalk easily. The walkways parted every so often so the she could see the red foliage and she would smile, always wishing she could find just a little bit more. Her father traveled and never came home, but she and her mother would visit him where he was staying if her was near, which had only been three times so far.

"So, what happened with the schism?" Priam asked, her thick northern accent bringing a smile to Kailee's face.

* * *

Kailee lay awake, listening to the sound of her newfound friend-thing's breathing as she slept. It was a calming sound, much like her voice had been when she'd spoken. Kailee thought of every excuse she could to keep her talking before showers and she'd fallen asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow afterwards.

She had started to wonder about her success here. Before coming to the Academy, she was absolutely sure this was where she wanted to be and she was more excited than she'd ever been to come learn and hopefully make a friend or two, but now she wasn't sure. Some of the people in her year were brilliant. She'd be lucky to even say hello to them, let alone be at the top of the class with them.

Back home, she didn't have any other children to play with. She'd gone to visit her cousins quite a bit, but they didn't connect. All she had to comfort her were stories. Her mother told her stories every night and her father sent her books in every language he'd come across. She decided that she would learn all of them and someday she would read the stories in those books to her children, like her mother did for her. The only story she could think about now was the one she'd tell about her time at the schism.

She wasn't sure exactly how long she'd been there. It only felt like a few seconds, like a conversation in passing, but she knew how the schism could tamper with one's sense of time. Another thing she didn't understand was why it made her think of her mother. She remembered how her mom would make crowns with the flowers she found along the way to the store and how they would wear them everywhere, even to the library. It made her think of this stuffed animal she had at home, a flubble named Asa. She had smelled the pastries her mother baked almost every day and the lived in scent of her pillow.

She listened as the breathing of the girl in the bed next to her quickened and shallowed until she shot awake, looking around the room frantically.

"Kailee?" she called out. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah," Kailee whispered. "You alright?"

"I'm okay. I had a nightmare," she explained.

"Do you want me to turn the light on?" Kailee asked, not letting up on the fact that she had a night light by her bed anyways.

"Please," the girl said, and a smile was audible in her voice.

Kailee shuffled over to the light switch, flicking it upwards quickly. She could see her roommate now, and how much of a mess she was after sleep. Her hair was strewn everywhere and her face was flushed as she held herself up with one arm on the bed. "Do you want to talk about it?"

* * *

**Again, the Academy in this story is based off of hunterofartemis080's story Songs of TARDISes. (I would hyperlink it but I don't know how, so here's the link to her profile: u/3119864/hunterofartemis080 ) Thanks for reading you sweeties and I'll update soon!**


	2. Chapter 2

The two had fallen asleep sometime in the middle of a conversation very early in the morning, with the lights on and Kailee hugging her pillow tightly. Her eyes fluttered open at the sound of people down the hall leaving their rooms and she nudged Priam with a careful push of her hand. "Hey," she whispered, "It's time to get up. We've got inspection in like two minutes."

The girl jumped awake, pulling her robes on quickly and running a brush through her dark hair. Her eyes were a hazy grey color instead of their usual blues, but she looked decidedly cute in her sleepy state.

Just as they both finished re-making Priam's bed, and only her bed, seeing as Kailee had slept there too and had only been laying above the covers beforehand, two professors came in and told them that they were free to go to breakfast, but to be sure to be careful in their new robes. They hurried to the large room where all of the students sat around tables with their own years.

Kailee looked around the table where their year sat, its three or four empty spaces standing out. One was next to a blonde boy, another beside a dark-skinned girl, but the other two were on either side of a dark brown haired, green-skinned girl. It wasn't often that the Academy had students from other planets, but occasionally after wars had wiped out entire planets, surviving children were sent to neighboring planets to live out their lives, confused as to why they weren't like the other kids. She was just like everyone else there though, aside from her odd complexion and two small stripes of tan on her exposed neck. The robes didn't quite fit her, but she tried to wear them anyways and would have to adjust them whenever someone looked at the strange marks until she was given new ones.

The girls took the obvious choice and sat down with the strangely-colored girl between them. It seemed to brighten her a bit, and her bright, venomous-looking eyes appeared to sparkle in the way that cartoon characters' do when they're excited. Kailee and Priam smiled at the girl, who they learned was named Lilinx, and held quiet conversation with her until they were shushed by a Time Lady standing near their table. A few people in grey robes passed out breakfast and they were all eager to dig in.

"This is amazing," Priam said, her mouth half full.

The others at her table laughed, though most of them said that their mother's was better. Other years looked at them, some looking annoyed while others seemed to think of their loudness as endearing. By then, the Time Lady who had earlier quieted them had left to say something to another professor and they were left to chat amongst themselves.

"I'm super excited!" the blonde boy declared, which was followed by two collective responses of 'Me too' and a series of groans.

They were led out of the room and shown to two or three others, each of which caught Kailee's and Lilinx's attention greatly, but only made Priam nervous. The three held hands as they walked through the hallway until they got to the library, a huge, seemingly never-ending expanse of books and knowledge and everything anyone could ever want in one room. Kailee snuck away from the group for not more than a few seconds, and managed to bump into a few older students. She quickly decided to stay with her year and found them as soon as she could, as they were walking out and on their way to see other things. The group was led to a classroom with students in it, actually taking a class.

"What are they doing?" Priam asked.

"It looks like math to me," came the blonde boy, Ondo.

She said something that sounded almost like the word "Gross" and everyone smiled. The class was quiet except for the teacher's voice, which was melodic and almost hypnotizing, and Kailee wondered how anyone could be not paying attention.

When finally they were done observing, they were made to find their own way through the halls and back to where they would eat lunch. Lilinx and a red-headed girl named Raice were at the front, guiding them until they reached the end of a hallway and there was no room full of food waiting for them. Priam informed them that they had taken a wrong turn two halls ago, and they went back in order to try again. They made it there rather quickly and all sat at the same table even after having been informed that they could sit with anyone they wanted.

Kailee spotted the older students from earlier and she waved at them, and they smiled and waved back. Her worries about the school were pushed down by the happiness she got from just sitting with her newfound friends and the two other novices, the ones from the library, who had come to sit with them. Soon the servers came around again, saying nothing and just handing out food.

"I could never be a server," a freckled girl called Andra chimed.

"Me either," someone agreed. "There's no way I could put up with kids every day."

Everyone laughed and Kailee talked to the two fourteen-year novices who she was informed were called Rakan and Tareen. Rakan was tall and looked at least ten, which was impressive for her age, and blonde, while Tareen was shorter and looked eight with brownish red hair. Both were wonderful conversationalists, but neither seemed to be sure of how to get Kailee to come out of her shell enough to actually tell them about herself.

Lunch was over sooner than she wanted it to be and they were escorted once again out of this room and into the hall. There were murmurs of confusion and nobody seemed to know where they were going until they got there. The walk was nice though and she was personally acquainted with three more people (Yyra, Niscan, and John) who happened all to be related to each other. They grew up on the T.A.R.D.I.S. farms and seemed very excited, saying they would be going to the T.A.R.D.I.S. cradle today and how interesting it would be after they'd seen the Schism.

She was starting to get tired with all of the socializing, like people generally do with anything they're not particularly good at. She was awkward with people her age and she tried to be too mature with people just a little older than her, but with the adults she seemed to be able to speak freely. The professors were nice to her, and she was pleasant back, but it more than that somehow.

She smiled as they all sat down at desks, each with paper and a pencil placed on top of them. Looking around, only about four people seemed happy to be doing school-related things.


End file.
